Eco-Babble

I see the recycling efforts locally are taking it on the chin. The City of Perry is ceasing its recycling program, Warner Robins never had one (but that’s a column in itself), and Centerville has a drop-off program. Houston County is the only one with a residential pickup program, but it’s only for newspaper, aluminum, tin, and plastic, no cardboard, magazines, mail, or glass allowed. To make matters worse, Warner Robins went from a pretty generous yard debris pickup program to a far more restrictive plan without community buy-in. I’m not sure how Warner Robins (after the previous scandalous affair years ago) signed a new contract that is worse for its citizens, but they did.

The recycling of stuff (all of the above) is not commercially viable, our local leaders say. They are probably right. Unless you factor in the replacement cost of our state-of-the-art landfill that I, and others, call the Tommy Stalnaker Landfill. We are fortunate to have an ideal location so far away from civilization (it has its own time zone) that almost no one remembers our prior landfill history, and therefore they aren’t worried about replacing it. After all, no one in power now will be around here when this one goes kaput.

Did you know that there used to be a landfill on Horseshoe Road, or Story Road, or Chapel Road, or… actually there are about 20 landfills scattered around Houston County, that we know about. Landfills are problematic in the long term, for a host of reasons, but the one we have will last a hundred years, maybe, but chances are previous landfills were thought to be long-term solutions as well.

Recycling is just some eco-blabber tossed around to make us feel good about ourselves. After all, can you be “one of Georgia’s most progressive counties” (directly from Houston County’s website) if you don’t recycle? It wasn’t that long ago we WERE Georgia’s most progressive county! Did someone point out that we aren’t anymore? I am not aware of any litigation, so I guess we just ceded the throne voluntarily.

As for the Burke/Gallaher Farm in old-town Warner Robins, we recycle. Our cans get recycled for money for our grandchildren’s college funds. Our paper, mail, and cardboard is shredded for our compost bins. Our plant and tree waste is chipped and shredded, also for compost. We use lots of compost in our 500-square-foot garden. DeKalb County, where I grew up, brings compost to its residents’ driveways for a very reasonable fee of $75 for 10 cubic yards. What a concept!

Here at Burke/Gallaher Farm, we aren’t able to recycle plastic, glass, or tin, since no one wants it, but we are willing to drop it off if someone takes it. We remember that old landfills never go away, even though our local leaders seem to believe otherwise.

Kelly Burke, attorney, former district attorney, and magistrate judge, writes about the law, rock’n’roll, and politics or anything that strikes him. Contact Kelly at  dakellyburke@gmail.com  to comment on this article or suggest articles that you’d like to see, and visit his website at  www.kellyrburke.com for an archive of past columns.